there are hundreds of papers and millions of numbers and formulas on them. My siblings and I can't seem to toss them out, we are puzzled! Before he died he told me that he was sorry he couldn't solve the formula for us, but keep in my that he was delirious from all the morphine (end stage metastatic bladder cancer). The numbers were written way before the cancer. Also he was a computer engineer for years and worked on a project for NASA through the company worked for, so he was a pretty smart guy.
2006-07-23 18:49:25 · 11 answers · asked by not_in_it_4_love 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
Sorry if I confused some, but my question is - do I toss the papers or could there be some way to figure out what they mean??
2006-07-23 18:56:34 · update #1
Michael G - thanks, but gotta say the first answer is by someone with my dad's (and brother's ) first name, last initial - very weird!
2006-07-23 18:59:20 · update #2
If you have access to a scanner why dont you scan them and post them on an accessible site on the internet. (Yahoo briefcase, a free geocities website, etc.) Then you could ask people what they think they are and give a link to the pages.
2006-07-23 18:54:24 · answer #1 · answered by Scott R 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's hard to say what the papers might mean without some information on them. If you'd like, I could review some of it if you'd send me some. Depending on what field it's in I might not be able to tell you that much, but I could at least point you in the right direction.
If it is in one of my fields, I'd be able to tell you what it is and whether it's worth keeping. If you'd like to contact me, my email address is crgreathouse -at- yahoo.com.
Of course, scans would make this easiest, but typing up portions can work if the symbols aren't too bad. I'll go out on a limb and guess you don't do TeX/LaTeX, so short of using something silly like the MS Equation Editor there's not a lot to be done with symbols.
2006-07-24 03:19:50 · answer #2 · answered by Charles G 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you might try asking a math professor at a local university or If you know anybody he worked with about them. If they are curious they can be scanned. It would likely not take a competent mathematician too long to have an Idea what they were about. They are likely old work that was completed and saved. It is hard to say.
2006-07-24 02:09:15 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
sounds like a true hard working engineer. I can totally relate... I'm a recent graduate in mechanical engineering and i usually will find lost papers with a bunch of numbers and equations that i wouldn't be able to solve. If your dad was anything like most engineers, he probably solved some of those equations in his dreams.
2006-07-24 01:57:00 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The signifigance of the numbers and formulas could a variety of things because math is a broad field of study and NASA specializes in space which is an infinitely vast area of study in itself.
2006-07-24 01:56:02 · answer #5 · answered by doubledc84 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think i know, how u said he was an engineer for nasa he prolly was tryin to fig out the formulas for nasa and then when u said he was delirious from all the morphine he was prolly thinkin that u were the peeps from nasa and he couldn't fog out the formulas for them. so it's up to u to keep them or not though.
2006-07-24 02:09:47 · answer #6 · answered by mochachinalatte18 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Did your dad have any friends or associates who might have known what he was working on? If you can find any, ask them. A bunch of numbers without formulas and text would be diffuclt to analyze.
2006-07-24 02:09:37 · answer #7 · answered by gp4rts 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
thats just plain sad, and im sorry for your loss!
Its men like your father that enable the rest of us to get by without having to bother with the horrid math we were forced to learn in school. Heres one for your dad!
2006-07-24 01:53:51 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Great story. Is there a question coming?
2006-07-24 01:54:26 · answer #9 · answered by Joseph 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
what is the question here???
i only see statements. are you trying to ask what he was doing?
2006-07-24 01:54:42 · answer #10 · answered by kelsarhu 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋